


XCOM 2: Infestation

by Razgrey



Category: XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Resistance, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:14:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24776716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Razgrey/pseuds/Razgrey
Summary: Eight months after the rescue of the Commander, the Elders have been defeated due to his strategizing and occasional save scum. Despite this, the war against ADVENT still rages on, and to supplement this, the puppets of the fallen elders unleash weapons of terror from the initial invasion.To combat this, an elite squad of soldiers is sent to quell the incoming threat, and to protect the widespread refugee camps from the increasing number of retaliation strikes.
Kudos: 1





	1. Retaliation Strike

The refugee camp was burning. ADVENT forces dropped on the area, determined to kill as many civilians as possible in order to spread terror throughout the resistance. And that clicking- that damn clicking came from every direction, keeping the local defenders paranoid of a threat that could come from anywhere.

<< We’ve already sent a distress signal. XCOM will help us soon! >>

<< MEC incoming! Everyone scatter! >>  
Chaotic messages ran across the local radio network, with any semblance of resistance getting drowned out by the rapid pleading for help.  
<< I'm being flanke- >>

"Eek! Someone help me!" A woman cried out, having been spotted by a chryssalid.  
She was paralyzed with fear, and even if she tried to run, it would easily catch up with her.

Here it comes… or? It was gone. The giant insect screeched as the roar of a shotgun silenced it, followed by the chambering of a new shell. "Get up and start running back that way, now!" The alleged savior shouted. The civilian, without saying a word, started running to safety.

Whoever it was wore getup unlike anything XCOM has fielded yet. They had dark grey plated armor similar to the predator armor that XCOM used, and a full-face mask that had two clusters of three red dots where their eyes should be. They raised their hand to an earpiece. "Secured one."

His confirmation was immediately met with similar messages on the same channel. << Three now. >>

<< Four. Hey, quit whining, you'll be fine! >>

<< Fifth one is mine. Oh shit, everyone get over here! Got some more ADVENT! >> Brief gunfire was heard before the transmission ceased.

"Everyone get to Cross, now!" The ranger shouted, beginning his dash towards the nearest group of civilians. Multiple resistance fighters were attempting to protect the unarmed group of people, but there were already casualties.  
ADVENT was ignoring the defenders to shoot the civilians. "Mor balaten! Aaa-" That was… reassuring, I guess.

Somehow, the ranger tripped over something. No, not just anything. A chryssalid just burrowed out of the damn ground behind him. "Oh fuck!" He immediately aimed his shard gun and fired off a shot, the alloys only managing to tear off one of its tiny arms as well as denting its torso.

<< Got sight of a MEC. Zap it, now! >> Cross ordered, still speaking on the radio.

It dodged the point-blank shot?! Before the ranger could finish standing up, the chryssalid immediately slashed him in the chest using its legs, knocking him down again. Oh great, and my squad is having fun without me.

But a loud noise from far off rang out. And a second later, the upper half of the chryssalid was separated from their legs.

<< You dead yet? >> A dull, female voice asked on the radio. Obviously the sniper of the team, of course.

"Save it for later. It was just a flesh wound." He had felt something forming on his body for a second, but the feeling quickly dissipated.

<< The MEC is down. Star destroyed it with her GREMLIN. >>

"Good." The ranger said, picking up his shard gun. "Is the situation dealt with?"

<< Yes. Some of the resistance members were infected by chryssalids, but they're being stabilized now. >>

Finally, he reached the remaining civilians. Though the aliens deployed several squads worth of units to eradicate the local resistance, many of them still survived. The resistance fighters were patrolling around the perimeter of the camp, making sure there were no more threats. Hm. They underestimated the strength of the resistance again.  
The ranger just walked on past them. "You all right?" He asked a nearby refugee that was still cowering.

"Is it over?" They asked back, in a frightened tone.

One could almost hear a little 'heh' beneath the ranger's mask. "Yeah. It's over for now."

The refugee simply stood up and started walking around to see the others. "McCoy? Are you there?" Must be a friend of theirs.

"Why is this still happening? The war is supposed to be over!" The ranger walked over to find a local resistance fighter shouting down the squad's specialist. She was geared up very similarly to the ranger, but their mask just had a glowing blue circle on one side, and a short, vertical line on the other.

"We don't know yet; we're still investigating the cause of this." She replied, almost as distressed as the fighter. When the ranger came close enough to spot, she turned to him. "Bayonet."

"Star." Bayonet turned to the resistance fighter. "We're just an offshoot of XCOM. The commander will be the one to find out the cause of this."

They just frowned. "Not soon enough."

Beneath his mask, Bayonet made a confident mumble.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?!" The ranger turned to see a civilian taking a few steps back from a friend, who was… convulsing!

"FACELESS!" Bayonet immediately drew a sword from his back, with its edge glowing with a bright blue energy, and immediately charged at the transforming infiltrator.  
"Take it down!"  
"No, wait!"

Torched.

November 3rd, 2035  
Brazil, South America  
7 days after the Elders' defeat

The squad had left the area, with XCOM being en route to clean up the alien bodies left in their wake.  
They left using an old helicopter salvaged and repaired about a month, using high-tech equipment to keep it up to scratch. Cross, their heavy gunner, was flying it back to their base of operations.

"What was up with that guy?" The sniper from earlier asked. After the faceless was taken down, one of the civilians was left a broken mess.

Bayonet turned to the sniper. "I believe the faceless I killed was his friend previously."

"Oh."

"They threw a lot of chryssalids at the settlement today." Cross commented, keeping his masked face forward.

Star sighed, resting her head on her hands. "Why are they still doing this? They've lost. They have nothing to fight for anymore."

"It's their final orders." Bayonet responded. "It gives them a purpose." We'll have to think about that later. We can't let them keep doing this. Bayonet thought to himself.  
No one had anything more to say for the rest of the ride.


	2. Operation Vengeful King

“Well, looks like that wound you received in battle wasn’t that big of a deal, but I can’t tell if you’re still bleeding or not under that armor…” Star said, reading info from her GREMLIN’s datapad.

The squad was still on the way back to their base from their earlier sortie via their helicopter. They weren’t XCOM, but rather an independent group of operators working to end the war for good.

Though tactically similar to XCOM, they were more secretive with their identities, and significantly less lenient when it came to dress-up. As such, they each donned black predator armor and wore high-tech masks to conceal their appearances.

Star was their resident tech expert. She fielded a GREMLIN; a drone that had everything the squad needed: Pressurized medkits, a taser, and a hacking program. Her mask featured a glowing blue circle on the left side, and a short, vertical line on the right. Short, brown hair was the only visible feature about her.

“You’re going to need treatment after this.” She said to Bayonet, who wasn’t paying much attention to her at the moment. “But for now, we’ll just have to close it up with a medkit.” She then promptly shook a medkit and sprayed the medical solution on his wound.

He immediately flinched. “Ow, what the hell! That stings, you know!”

Bayonet was just a ranger, or a guy who carried just a sword and shotgun. His mask had clusters of three red dots on each side of his face. He had brown hair as well.

Star just shrugged before putting the medkit away. “What? I had to be sure.”

If the ranger could make a death glare that could shine through the mask, he would.

Meanwhile, Glass, the team’s sniper just silently sat in a corner of the chopper, presumably staring out one of the windows… or just sleeping. Her mask had a thick vertical white line going straight down the middle, with a diamond-shaped notch in the center that held a high-tech camera. She had blonde hair that reached her shoulders and a short cloak.

“We’ve arrived, ladies and gentlemen.” the helicopter pilot announced, landing the helicopter. "Luckily we won't have to worry about refueling just yet because elerium lasts so long."

He went by the moniker of Cross, and unlike the rest of the squad, he wore a helmet instead. There was an area shaped like sunglasses that glowed green on the front, which was actually just for look, since every helmet nowadays utilized optics on the outside of the helmet which provided visual information to the wearer.  
Cross was just a gunner. Not like those grenadiers who constantly caused structural damage with their grenade launchers, Cross relied solely on his machine gun, with the occasional flashbang thrown in for good measure.

As the helicopter powered down, everyone got off. “I need to take a shower.” Glass says while walking off to somewhere else in the base. Cross also left in another direction.

“Alright, see you guys later. I gotta bring this idiot to the infirmary.” Star replied, dragging Bayonet along with her. He didn’t struggle, and only gave a rebellious groan in return.

\-----

<< Thanks to the quick response time of ADVENT, casualties from dissident activity was able to be reduced to a minimum, with several collaborators being arrested in the process. >>

“Can you believe this shit?” A white-haired woman said to a nearby person, both of which were sitting on a sofa listening to the TV in front of them.

The other person had reddish hair, with several burn scars littering their face. “It’s more propaganda, so no, I don’t believe it.”

The woman shook her head. “That was a rhetorical question, you know.”

“Watching TV again, guys?” Cross entered the room, still wearing his helmet. He had no problem just plopping himself in the middle of the sofa to get a good view of the TV.

<< When you’re tired or hungry or just need a treat, ADVENT Burger, the place for meat! >>

Cross took his helmet off, showing his dirty blonde hair and beard, and dull blue eyes. “You guys steal any burgers for us while we were away?”

The red-haired individual shaking his head gave away a pretty good answer. “I hope that was a joke.”

“You serious?” Cross asked, looking at the man, and then the woman, who just shrugged. “You can’t just not take the chance to grab good burgers like that?”

“Just suffer and eat the rations like the rest of us.” The woman said. “Also, take a damn shower already. You reek of aliens.”

<< Hellll-lo, again, everyone! It’s the voice of the resistance here again, just taking over for a sec… >>

Clearly their personal space was being invaded. Cross glanced at the two for a few seconds before conceding and getting off the sofa. “Alright, alright. I see I'm intruding on something between you two!” He said as he left, with a joking grin on his face.

“Hey, you shut the fuck up before I turn your brain inside out!” The woman shouted at Cross, almost lunging forward at him.

<< ...is dumb to think they can just gather up their little army and “defend their pride”! >>

The other man just seemed to be done at this point. “Just let it go, Neon. I’d prefer it if people didn’t believe the gossip he comes up with.”

Neon just shook her head and left the room, accidentally bumping into someone around a corner. “Oh, woah, sorry!” It was Glass, who was still wearing her armor as well. “Sorry, Glass. Didn’t see you there.” Don’t know why, but it always seemed like she was squinting or was just constantly sleepy.

“Bayonet has a mission for us.”

“Uhh, you guys just came back from a mission.” Neon said.

Glass showed a brief smirk. “Hmh. I’m still up for another one. It’ll be you, Hardline, Cross, and me.”

Neon sighed. “And it’s already becoming late. Fine, I'll gear up.” She turned around and walked back into the living quarters as Glass left for something else. “Hardline.” The guy was still listening to the DJ’s annoying ranting.

<< Right now, some of my... reliable contacts say that ADVENT is piling up their supplies over here. >>

Hardline kept his eyes on the TV. “Need something?”

<< You know what that means? Hehehaha! More good stuff for XCOM to steal! >>

“Yeah… Bayonet says we gotta go on a mission.”

“Okay. When?”

“Uhh…” Neon rubbed her neck, clearly unaware of the answer.

“In 30 minutes!” Glass shouted from another room.

Hardline stretched his arms out a little before standing up and turning off the TV. “Alright then. Let’s get to it.”

Heading to the armory, the two grabbed their masks that were hung on a stolen hat rack.

Neon’s mask simply had two horizontal lines on each side, with an eerie purple glow for effect. She put on some sort of glove on her right hand as well, and a purple glow emitted from it for a few seconds. “Alright, this’ll do it.”

Hardline’s mask on the other hand, just seemed like a futuristic gas mask with some measure of orange glow. “Okay, all set.” He said as he finished donning his armor. He packed a gauss LMG and a grenade launcher, because explosions were always the XCOM way. “Let’s head to the helipad. Command will tell us the mission details eventually.”

<< Bayonet here. Can you hear me? >>

Hardline raised a finger to his earpiece, but Neon was faster. “Yep.” She quickly replied. “What are we doing?”

<< An anonymous individual just contacted us. They’ve tipped us off to an ADVENT supply compound. >>

“You mean like the one we heard about on TV?” Hardline asked, unimpressed.

<< Wait, what? >>

“Yeah, the DJ just mouthed off about it. He thinks XCOM should get in there for a smash and grab.”

Bayonet could be heard giving off an exasperated sigh, probably facepalming where he was at. << What an idiot… anyways, the tip also hinted about there being more than just supplies at the area. Make your search thorough after you defeat all the guards. >>

“You got it!” Cross said. Everyone arrived at the helipad… except for Bayonet and Star. Cross turned off his earpiece. “You said we’d be leaving in 24 minutes. Why does everyone want to leave now?” He asked Glass, who just glared at him with her single ‘eye’.

Hardline chuckled slightly. “Think i’d rather not go to sleep halfway through the night.”

“But I didn’t get any time to eat burgers, or even our rations!”

“Enough.” Hardline marched up to Cross, probably giving him a death stare as well. “I’ll fly the helicopter if it keeps you from complaining, alright?”

Cross gave him a subtle nod as an answer, and then motioned for Hardline to start the helicopter.

Neon climbed into the co-pilot’s seat while Glass and Cross settled in the back seats. “Welp, let’s make this quick.”

“Bayonet told us to make complete search of the place.” Glass reminded her.

Ugh. “Fuck all.”

\-----

As the helicopter got closer to the destination given by Bayonet, Neon suddenly realized where they were headed to: A Lost City. The buildings were decrepit, and many were on the verge of collapsing. Fog pods from the invasion still littered the area, with several frozen victims visible near them. “Uhh… this was supposed to be where ADVENT was gathering supplies, right?”

“That’s what the contact told us.” Hardline replied, not really fazed that much by the risk. He slowly settled the helicopter down to a rooftop.

“Umm,” Glass started. “Are you sure the roof is sturdy enough to support the helicopter?”

Hardline said nothing for a few seconds. In fact, he was trying to lower the chopper’s altitude to test the roof. “Yeah. I’m sure.”

“Not unless -someone- explodes it.” Cross smugly said, throwing a ration wrapper off the roof.

“Save your jokes for later.”

Glass hopped out of the chopper, staring at a seemingly random direction, pulling her gauss rifle off her back for a better view. “Hey, I think I found them already.”

Neon reached her Glass’s rifle, -before- saying: “Hey, let me see.” But the sniper just moved it away.  
“No.”

Cross crouched near the edge of the roof to get a slightly better view. “Oh, got some lights over there. I’m gonna head in for a closer look.” He then promptly hopped off the three-story building.

The rest of the squad also managed to just get off the roof without suffering from any leg injuries. Now if explosions were involved, that would be a different story.

Now that everyone was closer, they could finally see the supply compound. “Did these guys seriously fortify themselves in one of these cities? That doesn’t seem like a good idea with all the zombies around.”

“Seems like it.” Hardline said. “I see a Turret, but no patrols. If this base is so important, why don’t they have more soldiers?”

Cross just leaned against a nearby mailbox, clearly not expecting any trouble yet. “Maybe the Lost got all of ‘em.”

Suddenly, an orange, blinking light appeared at the base of the Turret, before erupting into a cloud of flames and shrapnel. “What the fuck?” Neon exclaimed.

The explosion resounded off the previously silent city, with howls replacing the echoing shockwave. “Lost.” Glass said, pulling out her pistol.


End file.
